Red Dead Redemption 2

# Red Dead Redemption 2 — Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus + NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090

Red Dead Redemption 2, released in 2018, remains a demanding open-world title, and the measured data for this combination of an Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 shows a wide performance envelope depending on resolution and preset. With average frame rates ranging from 49 FPS at 4K Ultra to 220 FPS at 1080p Low, the results indicate that this pairing is capable of high refresh rates at lower resolutions but becomes thoroughly GPU-bound as pixel count rises.

Resolution Scaling

The frame rate drop from 1080p to 4K is steep at every settings level, which is the expected signature of a GPU-limited workload. At High settings, the average FPS falls from 137 at 1920x1080 to 102 at 2560x1440, a reduction of roughly 26%, and then to 68 at 3840x2160, which is a 50% drop from the 1080p figure. This scaling pattern shows that the RTX 5090’s rendering throughput is being taxed progressively as pixel count quadruples from 1080p to 4K, and the CPU is not the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The Low preset tells a similar story but with higher absolute numbers. The average FPS at 1080p Low is 220, which drops to 164 at 1440p, and then to 108 at 4K. The percentage decline from 1080p to 4K is about 51%, nearly identical to the High preset’s drop. This consistency across presets indicates that the resolution scaling is primarily a function of the GPU’s fillrate and shading capacity, not a sudden change in CPU or memory bottleneck behavior.

At Medium settings, the measured minimum and maximum frame rates provide additional context. At 4K Medium, the average is 81 FPS with a min of 69 and a max of 93, while at 1440p Medium the average rises to 123 FPS with a min of 104 and a max of 141. The spread between min and max grows slightly at higher resolution, but the average-to-min ratio remains similar, suggesting stable frame pacing rather than sudden stutters.

The Ultra preset shows the most dramatic scaling. At 1080p Ultra, the average is 99 FPS, dropping to 74 at 1440p, and then to 49 at 4K. The 4K figure is less than half of the 1080p figure, and the 49 FPS average indicates that even this flagship GPU cannot maintain a smooth 60 FPS at maximum settings in 4K. The data suggests that the limiting component at 4K Ultra is unequivocally the GPU, as the CPU’s role diminishes when the render load becomes so heavy.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus is a 24-core, 24-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake Refresh architecture, built on a 3 nm process. Its base clock is 3.70 GHz with a boost clock of 5.80 GHz, and it carries 36 MB of shared L3 cache. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 51731 and a single-core score of 7303, while its PassMark multithread score is 60860 and single-thread is 4823.

In the context of Red Dead Redemption 2’s measured FPS, the CPU’s strong single-thread performance is relevant for the lower-resolution, higher-frame-rate scenarios. At 1080p Low, the average of 220 FPS is a level where CPU overhead can become a factor, but the data shows no evidence of a CPU ceiling being hit. At 1440p Low, the average of 164 FPS is still high, and the scaling from 1080p to 1440p is roughly 25%, which is close to the pixel count increase of 78% — actually, the frame rate drops less than the pixel count increases, indicating that the GPU still has headroom and the CPU is managing the draw calls adequately.

The CPU’s percentile ranking of 96 among all tested CPUs places it in the top tier, and its average benchmark score of 84003 is nearly identical to its nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, which scores 83807 for a delta of just 0.2%. This near-tie in synthetic performance suggests that in a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, which is not known for extreme CPU multithreading demands, the 290K Plus is unlikely to be the bottleneck even at high frame rates.

At 4K resolutions, the CPU’s role diminishes further. The frame rates at 4K Medium (81 FPS) and 4K High (68 FPS) are well below the thresholds where a modern high-end CPU would limit performance. The data indicates that the 24 cores and 24 threads are more than sufficient for this game’s threading model, and the boost clock of 5.80 GHz helps maintain consistent frame delivery in scenes with many NPCs or physics calculations.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides a clear hierarchy of performance across the four presets. For users prioritizing smoothness at 4K, the Medium preset offers the best balance, with an average of 81 FPS and a minimum of 69 FPS. This is the only 4K preset that consistently stays above the 60 FPS threshold in the measured data, as High averages 68 FPS (which may dip below 60 in demanding scenes) and Ultra averages just 49 FPS.

At 1440p, the High preset delivers an average of 102 FPS, which is ideal for high-refresh-rate monitors. The Medium preset at 1440p averages 123 FPS with a min of 104, making it the best choice for 120 Hz displays if visual fidelity can be sacrificed. The Ultra preset at 1440p averages 74 FPS, which is playable but not optimal for competitive or fast-paced play. The Low preset at 1440p averages 164 FPS, which exceeds the refresh rate of most monitors, but the visual quality reduction is substantial.

At 1080p, the Medium preset averages 164 FPS with a min of 140, providing a smooth experience on 144 Hz or 165 Hz panels. The High preset at 1080p averages 137 FPS, which is still excellent, and the Ultra preset averages 99 FPS, which is suitable for 100 Hz displays. The Low preset at 1080p averages 220 FPS, which is the highest measured figure in the entire dataset, but the graphics downgrade is severe.

The data suggests that the best overall experience per the measured rows is the Medium preset at 1440p, where the average of 123 FPS and minimum of 104 FPS provide both high fluidity and a resolution that leverages the RTX 5090’s capabilities. For 4K users, Medium is the only viable option for consistent 60+ FPS, while High and Ultra should be reserved for scenarios where frame rate is secondary to visual quality.

FAQ

Q: What is the highest average FPS this combination achieves in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: The highest measured average is 220 FPS at 1920x1080 with the Low preset. The next highest is 164 FPS, achieved at both 1440p Low and 1080p Medium.

Q: Can this setup run Red Dead Redemption 2 at 4K with a consistent 60 FPS?

A: Based on the measured data, the Medium preset at 3840x2160 averages 81 FPS with a minimum of 69 FPS, which is the only 4K preset that stays above 60 FPS. High averages 68 FPS, which is close but may drop below 60, and Ultra averages 49 FPS.

Q: How does the CPU compare to its closest rival in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus has an average benchmark score of 84003, which is 0.2% higher than the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K’s score of 83807. It also leads the AMD EPYC 4584PX by 1.1% and the AMD EPYC 9135 by 1.2%, while trailing the AMD EPYC 7F72 by 1.3%.

Q: What is the GPU’s benchmark percentile ranking?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is in the 92nd percentile among all tested GPUs. Its average benchmark score is 79842, which is 0.3% higher than the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB and 0.6% higher than the Tesla P100 PCIe 12 GB.

Q: Is there a setting where the frame rate drops below 60 FPS at 1080p?

A: No. All measured presets at 1920x1080 exceed 60 FPS, with the lowest being Ultra at 99 FPS average. The Medium preset has a minimum of 140 FPS, and the other presets have no recorded minimum below that figure.

Q: How does the frame rate scale from 1440p to 4K at High settings?

A: At 2560x1440 High, the average is 102 FPS. At 3840x2160 High, the average drops to 68 FPS, representing a 33% reduction. This is a slightly larger drop than the pixel count increase of 225%, indicating that the GPU is becoming the primary constraint.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 is built on the Blackwell 2.0 architecture with the GB202 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. It features 21760 shading units, 680 texture mapping units, and 176 render output units, along with 170 ray tracing cores and 680 tensor cores. The GPU’s boost clock is 2407 MHz, and it operates at a base clock of 2017 MHz.

Memory configuration is a defining feature of this GPU: 32 GB of GDDR7 on a 512-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 1.79 TB/s. This enormous memory bandwidth is directly relevant to Red Dead Redemption 2’s open-world streaming, where high-resolution textures and distant geometry must be fetched quickly. The measured FPS data at 4K, where the average at High is 68 FPS, suggests that the memory subsystem is not a bottleneck, as frame rates decline smoothly rather than exhibiting stutter or hitches.

The GPU’s FP32 compute throughput is 104.8 TFLOPS, and its pixel rate is 423.6 GPixel/s with a texture rate of 1,636.8 GTexel/s. These figures explain why the RTX 5090 can push 220 FPS at 1080p Low but only 49 FPS at 4K Ultra — the fillrate and shading work scale directly with resolution and preset complexity. The 92nd percentile ranking among all GPUs places it near the top, though its average benchmark score of 79842 is only 0.3% above the nearest rival, indicating a very tight grouping at the high end.

The GPU’s 32 GB of VRAM is far more than Red Dead Redemption 2 requires at any measured setting, so memory capacity is not a limiting factor in any of the 12 measured configurations. The 1.79 TB/s bandwidth, however, is crucial for maintaining frame rates at 4K, where the data shows a 33% drop from 1440p to 4K at High settings — a steeper decline than the pixel count increase, which points to shading and ROP throughput as the primary limiters rather than memory fetch.

Measured FPS Breakdown

At 1920x1080, the measured averages are 220 FPS for Low, 164 FPS for Medium, 137 FPS for High, and 99 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset includes a minimum of 140 FPS and a maximum of 189 FPS, showing a tight frame distribution. The Low and High presets have no reported minimum or maximum, but the average values indicate a clear progression: each step from Low to Ultra reduces the average by roughly 36-45 FPS, with the largest drop occurring between High and Ultra at 38 FPS.

At 2560x1440, the averages are 164 FPS for Low, 123 FPS for Medium, 102 FPS for High, and 74 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset’s minimum is 104 FPS and maximum is 141 FPS, which is a wider spread than at 1080p, suggesting that higher resolution introduces more variance in frame rendering times. The drop from Low to Ultra at 1440p is 90 FPS, which is a 55% reduction, slightly larger than the 55% reduction at 1080p (from 220 to 99 FPS).

At 3840x2160, the averages are 108 FPS for Low, 81 FPS for Medium, 68 FPS for High, and 49 FPS for Ultra. The Medium preset has a minimum of 69 FPS and a maximum of 93 FPS, which means that even the minimum stays above 60 FPS. The High preset’s average of 68 FPS is just above 60, but with no recorded minimum, it is unclear how often it dips below. The Ultra preset at 49 FPS is the only measured configuration that falls below 60 FPS average, and it is also the lowest average in the entire dataset.

The scaling from 1080p to 4K at each preset is consistent: Low drops from 220 to 108 (51% reduction), Medium from 164 to 81 (51% reduction), High from 137 to 68 (50% reduction), and Ultra from 99 to 49 (51% reduction). This uniformity across presets confirms that resolution scaling is a pure GPU workload increase, with no CPU or memory bottleneck appearing at any point.

How This Combo Ranks

This specific combination of the Intel Core Ultra 9 290K Plus and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 ranks 76th out of 2902 tested combinations in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the top 2.6% of all tested systems. This ranking reflects the dataIsMeasured flag, meaning the results are based on actual benchmark runs rather than estimates.

The CPU’s synthetic benchmark performance is 96th percentile among all CPUs, and the GPU is 92nd percentile among all GPUs, so the combination of two top-decile components yields a ranking that is slightly below the absolute top of the database. The rank of 76 out of 2902 suggests that there are 75 combinations that achieve higher average FPS in this game, which is plausible given that some systems may use overclocked variants or different driver versions.

The CPU’s nearest rival, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, has an average benchmark score that is 0.2% lower, meaning the 290K Plus holds a marginal synthetic edge. The GPU’s nearest rival, the NVIDIA Tesla P100 PCIe 16 GB, is 0.3% lower in average score, so the RTX 5090 also leads its closest competitor by a small margin. These narrow deltas indicate that the components are at the very top of their respective performance curves, and the 76th rank in game is likely due to the specific demands of Red Dead Redemption 2 rather than any deficiency in the hardware.

Given that the data shows 4K Ultra at 49 FPS, it is clear that even this high-ranking combination cannot max out the game at 4K with a 60 FPS target. The rank of 76 out of 2902, combined with the measured FPS across all resolutions, suggests that this combo is best suited for 1440p high-refresh-rate play or 4K medium-settings play, where it consistently exceeds 60 FPS and often approaches or exceeds 100 FPS.